Unix: A History and a Memoir
Brian Kernighan
11 people recommended it in 5 threads, 2015–2020.
What people on Hacker News said
I love reading about the development of early programming languages and computing environments, but I was surprised to find how helpful it is for deepening my understanding of things I use every day.
It's amazing to me that tools like grep, which I use without a second thought, were written in the 1960s and 1970s and the code behind them hasn't been changed all that much.
I loved reading the early history of the development of UNIX and all the command line tools we use on a regular basis.
The history was wonderful to read, and it made me a little better at the command line as well.
"unix: a history and a memoir" is a mischievous first hand account from brian kernighan (of unix / c / awk fame)
Kernighan's "UNIX: A History and a Memoir" is a fun read.
Where it comes up
- Ask HN: Computer Science/History Books? 2020 · 7 recommendations
- Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020? 2019 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2019? 2019 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Fun Tech Book Recommendations? 2019 · 1 recommendation
- The Hacker Shelf: Collection of free books for the intellectually curious 2015 · 1 recommendation